Three years ago, some U.S. Soccer supporters, blinded surely by passion, were certain this guy was about to lead a march on the World Cup trophy.

But real life intervened, including some very serious matters, literally of life and death. Then came the long period of recovery, conflicting accounts of his bit for career resumption that sometimes put him at odds with U.S. Soccer, a re-introduction into professional soccer and finally a slow, painful fall out of the limelight and onto the fringes of the pro game.

Now, a U.S. roster will is days from release – and among those who are reasonably well educated on the current U.S. Soccer pool, no one has talked about Davies for months.

Until recently, many U.S. fans held fast to fading hopes that Davies was still or could once again be a force, a meaningful player and perhaps even a game-changer in the never-ended U.S. stretch for power and acclaim in the world’s game.

Along the way, Davies filed a high-profile, $20 million lawsuit against the establishment at the center of his spiral from professional grace. It was the moment where Davies “lost” public support, what he still had of it. In the court of public opinion, Davies seemed tone deaf to his own complicity in his downfall, to breaking curfew on the eve of a huge match, to his own poor decision to climb into a car that would crash, kill one person and probably wreck his professional career.